MCKINNIE, CHARGERS IN ‘ONGOING’ TALKS

On Tuesday, he was all over Twitter, sending updates to 80,000-plus followers that he was flying out of Miami, that he was at his Dallas layover, that he landed in San Diego. There were posts about finished meetings with the Chargers, about going to dinner with them, about getting back from dinner.

On Wednesday, at 8:32 a.m., he snapped a photo of the entrance to Chargers Park. “In the building early,” he wrote.

Then, it turned silent from the left tackle. Totally silent.

The rest of McKinnie’s Wednesday was, however, busy, as he took a physical and weighed a contract offer from the Chargers, a source said about 3 p.m. The source described negotiations as “ongoing” and speculated McKinnie could be leaving for the airport at anytime, heading back home to Miami.

Whether or not negotiations progressed enough to diffuse those plans is unclear.

But the Dolphins and Ravens are among those also believed to have interest in McKinnie. Earlier this week, the 33-year-old visited and took a physical with Miami.

If he signs in San Diego, he’d figure to be a stopgap starting left tackle — and an exception to a youth movement. McKinnie turns 34 in November. Tight end Antonio Gates and punter Mike Scifres are the oldest players on the roster at 32.

Last year, McKinnie started all four postseason games for the champion Ravens. The 6-foot-8. 354-pound lineman was a reserve in the regular season.

Mutual optimism

Shaun Phillips successfully made the transition.

Shawne Merriman did, too.

Tourek Williams, the Chargers’ sixth-round draft pick last week, will attempt to swap positions, moving from college defensive end in Florida International’s 4-3 defense to outside linebacker in San Diego’s 3-4.

He seems confident.

“I feel like I can make the transition,” Williams said in a recent phone interview. “I’ve just got to work on certain techniques and getting better at dropping and learning my coverages. At that point, it’ll be second nature like pass rushing. …

“I’m hard-nosed. I’ve got a great motor that never stops. Whoever has the ball, whether it’s pass rushing or run-stopping or even dropping in coverage and getting the pick, I feel like I can make every play on the field.”

Williams is listed at 6-foot-3, 260 pounds.

He made 44 tackles in 2012 with a career-high 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

Evaluators study how fluid a defensive end moves in space when judging his ability to shift to outside linebacker. There were examples of that in his college film, which built a starting point for that evaluation, Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco said last week.

“He worked out a little bit as an outside linebacker, so you can see a little bit there,” Telesco said. “The big thing with him is he plays so hard. He plays with a great motor. He’s smart. He’s productive. A lot of the times at that position you have to take the traits that he has and make a projection and see if he can do it. We think he can do it.”